SA国际传媒

By Lisa Zengarini

Pope Francis on Monday welcomed in the Vatican the players and managers of the Spanish Football Royal Club Celta de Vigo, celebrating its centenary. The club, also simply known as 鈥楻eal Celta鈥�, was founded in the Basque town of Vigo, in Galicia, in 1923.

In his address, Pope Francis again reflected on sport as a metaphor of life and on its true meaning as 鈥渁n opportunity to rediscover and promote values鈥�, such as giving oneself generously,  working as a team,  but also welcoming the other as a friend, to promote a more united and fraternal world. 

We are all united

Noting that the team bears the same sky-blue colours of the Virgin Mary, and those of the national football club of his home country, Argentina, Pope Francis started his reflection by remarking that it is almost as if Mary "had wanted to put herself the two shores the Atlantic which has united us more than separating us, so that we never forget her"

The Pope also recalled that when Celta鈥檚 current president Carlos Mouriño Atares, who was born in Vigo, had to cross the Atlantic as a young man to raise his family in South America, leaving his home town for a while, he left 鈥渕ore than a piece of his heart鈥�,  waiting for him in Spain, where he eventually returned.

鈥淚n a way," said the Pope, "we could say that the heart of humanity is made up of all those little pieces which, staying or leaving, remind us deep down that we are all united; that we are all pilgrims in the stormy sea of existence.鈥�

Self-sacrifice and team-work 

Pope Francis also reflected on another feature of the insignia of the team: the Cross of St. James (a cross resembling a sword, with the hilt and the arm in the shape of a fleur-de-lis, ed.), rising like a banner of victory. 鈥淓ven that cross recalling your Galician homeland," he noted, "unites it to Europe and, in it, to all of Christianity, which from time immemorial has wandered in the footsteps of the first Apostle who shed his blood for Christ.鈥�

Like the Cross of Saint James,  the Pope remarked  鈥渂oth in the stadium and in life,  your weapons are those small gestures to which we sometimes don鈥檛 pay any attention: winning starting from humility, working as a team without relying only on one's own strength, understanding that victory belongs to everyone. It is also giving oneself generously, sparing no effort, knowing how to sacrifice oneself for the other."

"In the same way鈥�, the Holy Father continued, 鈥渋t is accepting that comparing ourselves with other teams serves to improve, to learn, to test ourselves and evaluate our game.鈥�

In this sense, he stressed, 鈥渢he other, more than an adversary worthy of respect, is always a welcome friend.鈥�

Game and life

鈥淚f our game and our life are consistent with each other, we will set this example and be able to convey not the passion for the colours that exclude, but the love for what they represent,鈥� Pope Francis said.

Never lose the amateur dimension of sport

Concluding, Pope Francis insisted, once again, on the importance of preserving the amateur dimension of sport.

鈥淲hen sport loses this amateur dimension鈥�, he warned, it turns into  an 鈥渁septic business, devoid of passion.鈥�